Improved apparatus for evaporating cane-juice



nitri tant' gaat can.

M. S. BRINGIER. OF ASCENSION PARISH, LOUISIANA.'

Letters Patent No. 96,081, dated October 2b, 1869.

rMPRovBD APPARATUS roR nvAPoRA'r-ING CANE/JUICE.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern.-

' furnace of the boilers in which the steam is generated that drives the engine of the sugar-mill, which is now wholly lost, by applying it to the evaporation 'of the cane- Y juice, and thus to dispense with the vexpensive additional furnace now employed by nearly every sugarplanter for such purpose, and to save the fuel required in connection therewith. A But there is a secondary, and, vto some extent, a very important object that is accomplished by my invention, which is the application of the heatlof all the waste steam, orof a certain portion of steam, designedly withdrawn from the boilers, to aid the process of evaporation, with the view, in both cases, to reduce, to the lowest possible limit, the cost of making sugar. My invention also reduces the labor required to evaporate cane-juice, to a very considerable extent.

In order t-o apply theiheat in vquestion from the furv nace of the mill and from the waste steam, or such portions of the steam from the boilers as may be withdrawn therefrom, and still leave enough to drive the machinery of the mill iu the most effective manner, it is necessary to make the chimney of the mill of sheet-metal, instead of brick, to prevent the absorption and retention of any considerable portion of the heath the walls thereof. y

In act, the best mode of applying my invention to practice, is to make the evaporating-pans in such form that they will themselves constitute sections of the chimney, and so as readily to be removable, should there be a\need to repair them, or to get at them separately for any other reason.

But my invention will be better a-nd far more quickly understood by an inspection of the drawing, which illustrates at once my method of applying the heat from the furnace of the boilers and the heat of the steam, which otherwise would be wasted, oi' which may be spared from the 'boilers of the mills, when the chimney'is of rectangular form, and the pans constitute sections thereof.

'lhe drawing exhibits three evaporating-pans A, B, O, fitted oneabove the other, and so made that there is a. rectangular open* space in the centre of them,

which, being connected with t-he furnace of the boilersr constitutes the chimney through 'which the products of combustion ascend, as in any ordinary case.

Across this open space or'chinmey any proper number of small pipes apass through the opposite interior walls of each pan in one direction, so that each end of each of the said pipes communicatcswith the open spaces wit-hin said pans, and thus allows them to be filled with the juice whenever the pans are lled with it. The pipes of the diierent pans may all cross the chimney in one direction, lor the pipes of one pau may ,v cross those of the next paus to it at right angles, without affecting the operation ofthe invention in any appreciable degree, but I prefer to have the` pipes alll cross the chimney in the saine or one direction'.

These pipes establish, in connection with the interior faces I) of the interior sides of the pans, which sides, as' before stated, constitute thel walls of the chimney, an extent of tire-surface which, being directly in the pat-h and on the sides of the current ot' heat from the furnace up the. chimney, I have found, by actual experiment, is sufficient to produce as rapid an evaporation as is compatible with good results in the manufacture of sugar.

The gas or steam from the pans may be thrown in- 'to the chimney through internal openings, as seen at E, in pan C, and thus'increase .the draught up the chimney, while at the same time 'adding tothe quantum of heat concentrated therein, or it may be carried into the external air, by means of openi`ngs,. as at F,

as shown in pan B.

The auxiliary heat to whichaI have referred, as coming tifom the waste steam, do., is applied by means of a system of internal pipes, b, as shown in pan C. These pipes are arranged within the pans so as to permeate the juiceithroughout most if not all portions of it, (for it is obvious that they may be adjusted and arranged in a variety of ways, all differing from the arrangement on the drawing;) and being connected with a pipe, G, so placed as to receive the steam as it escapes from the cylinder, at each stroke of its piston, and also, if need be, from a pipe leading directly from the boilers, they will obviously communicate a large part of the heatfof 'the steam, as it passes through them, to the jui ce, and, hence, powerfully aid iin its evaporation. The steam, after accomplishing its function, is returned again to the boilers,

in condensed form, of course, there to be reconverted into'steam, and .so on indefinitely.

Any ordinary means, in the way of valves, may be -employed to carry the juice, after it has been c onverted into sirop, from one pan tol another, andl to withdraw the sirup and sugar from the pans.

I have devised means for doing this in the most effective manner, but as they form no part of my invention, I do not, therefore, describe them herein, nor show them on the drawing.

I have demonstrated, by the actual practice of my invention, that the evaporation of any given quantity of juice can be effected by it at less than half` the cost involved in the use of the ordinary arrangements for accomplishing the same object, and that the first cost of the organism, so to call it, is considerably less than that of an ordinary set of sugar-kettles or pans.

'lhe three pans I have shown on the drawing, are toillustrate my invent-ion, for l by no means 'confine f myself to that or any given number, but reserve, on

Having thus described my invention,

That I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is l 1. Applying the heat from the furnace of the boilers of sugar-mills to the evaporation of cane-juice, when the same is done by the means of the pans O ,B A, and in the manner substantially as herein described, for the purpose set forth.

2. The arrangement of pipes b within evaporatingpans, constructed, arranged, and operating as herein described, for the purpose set forth.

3.. vThe pans AIB C, when provided with pipes a, and otherwise constrncted Aas herein described, in combination with the furnace of the sugar-mill, or an independent furnace, in lieu thereof, substantially as herein' described, for the purpose set forth.

' M. S. BRINGIER.

Witnesses:

RUFUs R. RHODES, H. N. JENKINs. 

